bragesjo wrote on 05/19/25 at 10:03:41:

I don't know much about the Dragodorf, but after something like 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.Qd2 a6 8.Be2 Nbd7 9.O-O-O b5 10.f3 it looks like Be2 is the wasted tempo. I like Be2 instead of f3 if black answers ...Nb8-c6, but I think that's not the Dragodorf idea?

Does anyone know if the Dragodorf is mentioned in the book? I have the book on Chesstempo, but cannot find the line anywhere. I think it is not mentioned but maybe I'm overlooking it.

As a more online blitz player these days I realy likes the books part about Sicilian and Pirc where they work well in practical online blitz games. I have not read entire book but I prefere different lines vs several openings. When I get more time over I might look more at French section but I prefere different openings vs Caro Kann, Alekhine (4 pawns) and a quick d3 system in Ruy Lopez.

Adding my own perspective as a weaker player than most people in this forum (just restarted playing after years, 1950s fide trying to get back to >2000)

I had this for a few days and overall I like it and plan to use several of the lines in my repertoire.

To me the best way to describe this repertoire is the following-
I think many of us have, in our black repertoire, some sort of line where white plays very forcingly and exchanges all the way to an endgame where they have only a nominal edge (maybe white's pieces are slightly more active, of black has one slightly weak pawn). The black repertoire book you're using claims it's really a dead drawn endgame as long as black is a bit careful, and the computer corroborates this by sprouting a string of zeroes. You understand the above to be true in a higher sense but in actuality you are not all that confident you can hold that endgame every time over the board and you have indeed lost a few online games that way.

This repertoire is in large part a collection of such lines for white- lines that are not considered critical, maybe never have been, and would definitely be completely harmless in correspondence chess, but are practically unpleasant for black to face in an over the board game, maybe up to a certain level (For example the accelerated dragon, Dragon, Petroff chapters follow the above pattern).

There are also some chapters where fresher ideas are presented (the Najdorf, the Sveshnikov and Scandinavian chapters come to mind) and white plays more ambitiously, so to be clear the repertoire is not all about getting a +=/= ending.

At my level, I found the idea behind such a repertoire convincing, and I plan to use quite a few lines. I suspect the book might be less useful for higher level players as the endgame technique of your average opponent increases, and I wonder if a titled player might see this as a collection of low risk secondary weapons that you use against specific opponents, rather than as the backbone of a primary repertoire.

It's obviously impossible to cover a comprehensive 1.e4 repertoire in 300ish pages, so corners had to be cut here and there. Examples include, as already mentioned, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 which is essentially dismissed as known to be bad with a very brief line, and the Classical Berlin (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nc6 4.O-O Bc5) where the reader is informed (via a 3...Bc5 move order) that 5.c3 O-O 6.d4 Bb6 7.a4 intending BxN and a5 is an idea for white, end of coverage.
Dodgy gambits (Latvian, Elephant) go unmentioned.
I think the latter are the more significant omission as I feel there is overlap between the level of player that will find this book most useful and the level of player that will not find it entirely obvious to handle said gambits over the board unprepared.

However I have to stress again that expecting a comprehensive 1.e4 coverage in 300 pages is unreasonable and the gaps are nothing one can't handle with a bit of extracurricular work on a database.

My only real criticism is that at times different chapters vary significantly it the style and depth of the coverage, and I wonder if this was initially born as a set of articles or specific openings aimed at players of a different level, that were only after collated into a book.

As an example- you would imagine from the near complete omission of coverage of 3...exd4 in the Petroff and the Classical berlin that the book is aimed at players that already have a significant amount of theoretical knowledge and for which these brief pointers to good lines is enough.
Yet the Pirc/modern chapter dedicates space to pointing out why 4.Bg5 Bg7 5.e5 dxe5?! is bad using as the mainline a game the author played against a 1660 rated player. Now as a weak player myself I found the coverage of this really helpful, as it is the sort of thing that might happen in my games. But for the same reason I don't feel a biref mention of the mainline left me adequately prepared against 3...exd4 in the Petroff. 
Vice versa, I think a titled player might read this, feel completely fine with the Petroff coverage, but wonder "why oh why are you using space on beating to death 5...dxe5?! in the Pirc that I can very much handle on my own and no one I play with would try anyway, couldn't you have used the space for a real line against the classical berlin instead".


Overall there is a lot to like here and so I had success with the lines presented (although mostly in online blitz/rapid so far) and I would recommend the book to my fellow club players. I would hesitate to recommend the book to a titled player (not that they would be particularly looking for my recommendations!) as I suspect some of the lines will get too dry/drawish over a certain level. And finally if you are a correspondence player, the book is essentially useless to you (not a criticism, the author clearly states this is an over the board repertoire) as many lines within the repertoire are purely about practical chances and will be easily neutralised by an engine assisted player.

This arrived in the mail a couple of days ago. While my initial reaction is fairly positive - there are a lot of interesting ideas - there is no doubt that this is an unusual book. 

First of all, it isn't a complete repertoire - there are numerous omissions: the Latvian and Elephant Gambits, the Grivas Sicilian and some others I noted. If you are looking for a one volume guide to 1.e4, this isn't it.

Secondly, sometimes important but unfashionable lines are just ignored or almost so. For example, in the Petroff chapter the recommended line is 3.d4. There is a short note that dismisses 3...dxe4 giving only the line to the well known tabiya after 8.Qf4 and claiming white is better there. Given that this line was a major battleground in the KvK matches in the 80s, I would say the reasons for that evaluation will be far from obvious to most readers.

Thirdly, the balance is very strange. The book is about 300 pages long. Fully 100 pages of that are devoted to the Spanish and propose a very mainline repertoire including taking on the Open, Chigorin, Zaitsev, Keres, etc. In contrast, the Petroff is 14 pages, the Caro Kann is 14 and the French is 24! It feels like the book was started as a huge absolute mainlines repertoire but at some point, probably while working on the Sicilian sections (also about 100 pages), it got switched to an approach more like the old Everyman 'Dangerous Weapons' series with a focus on unusual sidelines. 

Finally, as an Alekhine's Defence player, I would like to thank Nikolaos for his recommendation there. I can only hope it becomes fashionable

Kerangali wrote on 01/03/25 at 20:04:02:


No, of course we don't 

Forwardchess.com have a sample book with the variation index laid out in it, just a few clicks required.